This post was originally going to feature only photos of the river and canal from the rails, like the one below, but

then I decided to pair photos from the train toward the water with the opposite: photos from the water toward roughly the same land area where the rails lay and the trains speed.

Train shots are difficult because of speed, coatings on the windows, trees and poles along the tracks . . . but I’m quite sure a letter that begins “Dear Amtrak: could you slow down, open windows, and otherwise accommodate the photographers” would not yield a positive response.

I hope you enjoy this attempt on my part. And if you ever have a chance to ride Amtrak along the Hudson, Mohawk, and Lake Champlain . . . sit on the better side of the car; switch sides if necessary.

If Margot were a fish, I guess you’d classify her as catadromous, sort of. And no tug that I’ve followed has switched between salt (where she was launched) and fresh (where she frequents as a working niche) water as often as Margot does. Last week she was sixth boro bound and exiting the low side of lock 9. Here’s a post I did almost two years ago about some very unusual bollards at the top side of lock 9. But I digress. Recognize the cargo on the barge?

See the two big shoes on the Nadro Marine barge pushed by Margot? You might also call them “pedestals” for the New York Wheel. Those are size 110-ton shoes. A little over a month ago, NY Media Boat caught the legs arriving, the legs which will wear these shoes.

Here’s a close up with two crew getting prepared to offload these shoes.

Chesapeake 1000–which you’ve seen working here and here–did the lift. In the photo below taken just prior to the shoes’ arrival, Chesapeake 1000 is offloading the “multi-axle” furnished likely by Supor. Sarah Ann assists with the swiveling of the large crane.

Here’s a closeup of the multi-axle (there’s likely another name for that, but I don’t know it)

and the drone that someone is using to document the transfer of cargoes.

Here Margot finesses the Nadro/McKeil SV/M 86 with the shoes to the lift point.

Here’s another view of the same, looking east.

At this point, the barge is 110 tons lighter as the shoe is lifted and moved carefully onto the dock.

All photos by Will Van Dorp. More shoes to come, although my Canadian cousins call them “boots.”

Click here for some details from SIlive.com. And since it’s always good to see more Margot, click here.

aka GHP&W 2. Macedon only became a port when Clinton built his ditch. The ditch and subsequent iterations connected it to the sea. When I took the photo below back on Oct 21 2014, eastbound on Urger, I felt very far from salt water.

But Chris Williams’ photo below, taken October 25, 2015, shows how connected Macedon is to the sixth boro and all watery places on Earth beyond the VZ Bridge. Less than a week ago, I did a post about Margot, the tug frequently-seen in NYC that delivered this cargo to the port of Macedon.

Bob Stopper took the next set photos. The fact that a Goldhofer semitrailer of 12 axles, 48 wheels, is needed shows the weight of the cargo delivered across the state by NYS Marine Highway. The land portion of the cargo transfer is provided by Edwards Moving and Rigging.

Here’s a closeup of the hydraulics at the front of the trailer.

Transfer from barge to trailer begins with the jacking up of the cargo.

At this point, there are 96 wheels under and moving the cargo.

The next photo taken by Rob Goldman, and taken from the NYS Canal Corporation FB page, on October 31, 2015, shows how the Edwards trailer moves the cargo, one huge piece at a time, off the barge and into the port of Macedon.

Macedon is one of those place names in central NY named for places or people in classical Greek and Roman history. Others are Troy, Ithaca, Palmyra, Greece, Athens, Rome . . . and more; people memorialized in town names here include Hannibal, Scipio, Pompey, Homer, Ulysses, Brutus . . . .

Credit for these photos goes to Chris, Bob, and Rob. My personal connection to Macedon includes the fact that I bought my first car there, less than a half mile from the Canal, and at the time had no clue that it was a port, that it could be connected to the oceans.

Although I’ve never named a post after this tugboat, you have seen her prominently in posts like here, here, and here.

Margot and crew specialize in commercial cargoes to places no longer accustomed to seeing such arrive by Canal. The cargo here is electrical generators for PSEG a pair of very heavy transformers …. for RG&E Macedon.

Here’s the lowest air draft on the Canal, about 15 feet under Bridge E-93. I’m guessing that an egg positioned at the high point on Margot would have been crushed here. You’ve seen this bridge before on this blog here . . . last photo.

Notice how low the barge is. It’s flooded with water to reduce the air draft of the top of the cargo.

All these photos were taken between Montezuma and Macedon.

Here the tow is exiting Lock 27.

All the above photos were taken by Bob Stopper, frequent upstate contributor to this blog. The next two come thanks to Chris and Eileen Williams, whose work also has been featured here. Here the tow waits to be offloaded just west of Lock 30.

A final photo–mine–I took in March 2015; I include it here to show what travels between the water’s surface and the canal bed.

Black-hulled USCG vessels are more common in winter. I’m not sure what Sanibel (WPB 1312) was doing in town.

Another indisputable sign of spring . . . is that big sliver . . . in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis the gull.

All kidding aside, it’s an impressive boat for a guy who immigrated to the US at age 16 and got a job washing dishes . . . if that’s true. I wonder who’s taking that selfie there? Is that a selfie with a circle of friends, a huge boat, and a bridge in the background?

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

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